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Product Description:

No less a mind than Isaac Newton once became obsessed with alchemy, the process by which one creates gold from lesser metals. The practitioners of this dark art believed that achieving the fabled transmutation would also mean obtaining God-like wisdom and immortality. THE SCIENCE OF MAGIC explores the shady, mythical world of the alchemists and their ties to the legitimate scientific endeavors of the age.

Description by New Video Group:

From the earliest times, but especially in the Middle Ages, men labored over furnaces and vats of molten metal hoping to discover a path to riches or everlasting life. And while modern society rightfully dismisses the Holy Grail of alchemy the transformation of lead or another base metal to gold the ancient art helped lay the groundwork for much of modern science. The modern image of alchemy is intertwined with the magic and superstition that dominated its practice in the Middle Ages, but there is much more to this mysterious discipline. Journey back to Ancient Egypt the birthplace of alchemy for a fascinating story of science, discovery and failure. Find out how Aristotle's doctrine that all things tended toward perfection was the foundation for alchemy, and see how the fantastical, magical elements grew as time went on, since the underlying science did not work. Historians reveal the many essential contributions that these misguided experiments led to, and fascinating ancient accounts and artwork detail the incredible lengths that alchemists went to in pursuit of their unreachable goal.